Visting Robben Island, where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for 18 years

October 8, 2009

Mandela spent 27 years in captivity, 18 of them on Robben Island, 7 miles from Cape Town. The island has been used to hold people that the government has considered undesirable for 400 years. This includes political opponents, the mentally ill and lepers. It's most famous prisoner was Nelson Mandela. Robert Subokwe, the founder of the Pan African Congress and a great resistance leader was also held captive there.

I have not read about Mandela's captivity in detail, but would like to share what I do know, trusting that it may still be a contribution to those of you who know less about it than I do. If I write something that is not quite accurate and you feel it would be helpful or mearningful to correct what I write, please feel free to do so in a Comment on this post.

Mandela was arrested in 1966, it is believed, with the help of information from the CIA. A group of U.S. congress people proposed a bill that the U.S. apologize for using the CIA in this way, but the bill never got passed. The congress people made the apology anyway; the letter is on the wall at Mandela's former home in Soweto.

One of the great accomplishments of Mandela and the other political prisoners was their attempt to turn the prison on Robben Island into a university of learning. Inmates who were educated taught those who weren't how to read and write ("Each one teach one."). And correspondence courses with major European universities, including Master's degrees, were availble to inmates and guards alike.

Mandela realized right away that the guards were an imporant part of the community and that in their own ways they were victims of the system too. He was determined that he treat them with the care and respect that was consistent with how he wanted himself and others to be in the world. Over time, many guards became more supportive and sympathetic to their cause, but they were deliberately rotated every two years by the authoirities for this very reason.

Initially, Mandela and the other political prisoners were integrated with the "common" criminals. But the authories saw that this was having a radicalizing effect on the common folk, and decided to house the political prisoners together. This enabled many long and meaningful conversations among the leaders about how they would lead the country, what needed to be done, how they would do it when the imprisonment was over and how they could prepare for it in the present They often had these convrsations while working in the limestone quarry because that was when they had freer access to each other. The guide of the tour, a former political prisoner, said that the work in the quarry serve no useful purpose; the limestone was never used, just pushed from one place to another as a form of punishment. The glare of the bright sun on the limestone led to serious vision problems in all the prisoners. That is why Mandela, after release from Robben Island, would not have flash photography in his presence; it hurt his eyes.

The guide told us about a time when his own father had gotten permission to visit him; a long and difficult bureaucratice process. However, in applying for permission to visit a family member on Robben Island, family members themselves because suspected of being terrorists and opened themselves up to be targeted and abused. The guide was expecting his father on a certain day and time, and when he didn't show up, he eventually got word that his father had been shot eight times by police officers in a punitive action. Some of the details of this incident came out in the hearings of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. The police officers received amnesty and were not punished. His father has not been well ever since the shooting and is relatively incapacitated. With some emotion, the guide stated that the officers are now prosperous business people. He was clearly pained about the contrast in outcomes for the people involved on both sides of these events.

I very much want to read more about the Truth and Reconciliation Commission hearings. I have heard people on both sides talk with some discomfort or anger about the outcomes. A white person complained that people were told to tell the truth and they would not be punished. But only 20% received amnesty and were not punished, I have heard. Among those on the receiving end of apartheid abuses, many feel that justice was not done. I am not completely sure if there is because there was no punishment, because the full extent of the suffering was not fully acknowledged by those involved in its perpretration, or because of the lack of reparations (i.e. a serious attempt to repair the harm, to "make things right" as much as possible, to provide restitution). But for me, the whole process is amazing - not that it was perfect, but that it was done. That a serious attempt for a reconciliation, healing process that would acknowledge and respect the suffering of the many under apartheid and not simply reverse the status of oppressed and oppressor.

I also think that knowledge of what happened here could serve as an inspiration to the men at Graterford Prison near Philadelphia, where I will be working with the Restorative Justice group starting in January. Many of you may not know that I am a Master's degree student at the International Institute of Restorative Practices in Bethlehem, PA (www.iirp.org) which is part of how I got involved in this whole Narrative Practices work in the first place. I value greatly what this institute is teaching - how do bring restorative practices (which seek to bring people together when conflct and/or harm occur) into instutions of education, health care, social services, etc. Ahh,so many wonderful and meaningful things to be involved in,..